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Publications (287)
Experimental studies using randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are a powerful tool in policy analysis. They have been sometimes hailed as the best means of identifying ‘what works’ in development policy. However, it would be unwise to rely solely on findings from RCTs to guide policy. While RCTs...
Journal Article
This peer-reviewed research is available free of charge. UNU-WIDER believes that research is a global public good and supports Open Access.
– A Porous Dialectic
Part of Journal Special Issue
Experiments in Development Economics
Journal Article
This peer-reviewed research is available free of charge. UNU-WIDER believes that research is a global public good and supports Open Access.
Part of Journal Special Issue
Experiments in Development Economics
Journal Article
This peer-reviewed research is available free of charge. UNU-WIDER believes that research is a global public good and supports Open Access.
– Better Policies? Better Politics?
Part of Journal Special Issue
Experiments in Development Economics
In recent years, experimental methods have been both highly celebrated, and roundly criticized, as a means of addressing core questions in the social sciences. They have received particular attention in the analysis of development interventions. The studies in this special issue push beyond...
Journal Article
This peer-reviewed research is available free of charge. UNU-WIDER believes that research is a global public good and supports Open Access.
– Opportunities and Challenges
Part of Journal Special Issue
Experiments in Development Economics
Journal Article
This peer-reviewed research is available free of charge. UNU-WIDER believes that research is a global public good and supports Open Access.
Part of Journal Special Issue
Experiments in Development Economics
Journal Article
This peer-reviewed research is available free of charge. UNU-WIDER believes that research is a global public good and supports Open Access.
– Definitions and Diagrams
Part of Journal Special Issue
Experiments in Development Economics
Book Chapter
– Long-Run Country Income Dynamics in Africa
This chapter examines the country-level dynamics of long-run growth in Africa between 1975 and 2005. We are primarily interested in examining how growth has affected mobility and the distribution of income among countries. We analyse changes in the cross-country income structure and convergence. We...
Working Paper
pdf
Social scientists are increasingly engaging in experimental research projects of importance for public policy in developing areas. While this research holds the possibility of producing major social benefits, it may also involve manipulating populations, often without consent, sometimes with...
– Whither Africa?
The global economic crisis beginning in 2008 has come at an inopportune time for Africa. Economic growth had recovered, poverty had declined, and human development had improved. Then the crisis hit. Growth then fell by 60 per cent. The growth decline has been less than in previous economic crises...
Blog
– Experimental and Non-experimental Approaches
24 September 2013 Rachel M. Gisselquist and Miguel Niño-Zarazúa UNU-WIDER's ReCom programme is centred around four core questions: what works, what could work, what is scalable, and what is transferrable in foreign aid? One of the first challenges in addressing these questions is a methodological...
Working Paper
pdf
– Definitions and Diagrams
The fundamental problem of external validity is not to generalize from one experiment, so much as to experimentally test generalizable theories. That is, theories that explain the systematic variation of causal effects across contexts. Here we show how the graphical language of causal diagrams can...
Working Paper
pdf
In recent years, randomized controlled trials have become increasingly popular in the social sciences. In development economics in particular, their use has attracted considerable debate in relation to the identification of ‘what works’ in development policy. This paper focuses on a core topic in...
Policy Brief
pdf
– Understanding Entrepreneurship and Violent Conflict in Developing Countries
Although the impacts of violent conflict on investment, production, incomes and inequality have been widely studied on an aggregate level, comparatively less is known about the more diverse impacts of such conflict at the micro (particularly firm) level. Understanding such impacts can improve...
Journal Article
– Entrepreneurship and Violent Conflict in Developing Countries
Part of Journal Special Issue
Entrepreneurship and Conflict
Displaying 16 of 287 results